Carton



G. P. PROFS Feb. e, 1951 l CARTON 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 22. 1948 Feb. 6, 1951 G, P, PROFS 2,540,595

CARTON Filed May 22. 1948 v 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 6290459@ EPfQ/o 55, ymgffyg Patented Feb. 6, 1.951

yCARTON George P. Props, Fort Wayne, Ind., assigner to Fort Wayne Corrugated Paper Company, Fort Wayne, Ind., a corporation of Indiana l Application May 22, 1948, Serial No. 28,573

1 Claim.

The present invention relates to a carton and more particularly to a carton suitable for the packing, shipping and display of the productl packed therein.

In the sale of various perishable products, particularly foodstuffs, such as fruit, potatoes, and the like, it is desirable that an attractive display be presented in order that only the larger, more uniform, or more nearly perfect items may be viewed by the buyer at the time of purchase. Generally, the burden of preparing such a display falls upon the retail seller who may find it necessary to repack the merchandise received from the grower or wholesaler in order that it may be presented most effectively to the buyer.

The present invention now provides a novel berboard carton by means of which articles, such as fruit, may be easily and expediously packed by the grower in such a manner that the largest, most uniform product may be advantageously displayed to the ultimate purchaser without any intermediate repacking or rearranging.

In general, the carton of the present invention comprises a pair of nesting, self-supporting receptacles having open ends, one of the ends of each receptacle being equipped with end flaps for closing the same. The receptacles or halves are separable from nesting relation and form, upon assembly, a closed carton structure having double thickness side and end walls. For the packing and shipping of perishable foods,

the nesting halves of the box are provided with registering apertures to provide for thecirculation of air through the box and other registering apertures providing hand holds for the lifting and moving of the assembled carton.

In the packing of a box, a layer of a product, as, for instance, apples, oranges or other fruit, is laid carefully in the closed bottom of one section of the box. This layer of fruit is composed of the largest, most uniform and most nearly perfect items available since it constitutes the visible layer of material when the contents of the carton are displayed to the purchaser. The remainder of the box is then lled by dumping fruit into the box on top of the carefully formed first layer. The outer half of the box is then telescoped over that half containing the fruit and vthe box is inverted so that the then uppermost layer of material contained therein is the uniform layer of selected fruit which was initially placed in the bottom of the inner half.

The outer, telescoping half of the box is provided with end and side flaps which are folded inwardly before telescoping this section of the box over that section containing the fruit. These inturned end flaps provide a friction iit between the two telescoping halves and also serve to strengthen and rigidify that edge of the' carton which upon inversion becomes the upper edge. The side walls of the telescoped halves cooperate todefine double thickness side walls while the end walls of each half form double thickness end closures to close the open end of the other half of the box.

It is, therefore, an important object of the present invention to provide a carton for the packing, shipping and display of fruit or other products.

It is a further important object of the present invention to provide a carton comprising telescoping receptacles which may be assembled to forma carton having double thickness side and end walls and a reinforcing thickness about the upper edge of the assembled carton to strengthen and rigidify the carton structure for shipping and stacking purposes. l

It is a still further important object of the present invention to provide a carton by means of which perishable products, such as foodstuffs, may be .packed so as to lpresent a pleasing display upon the opening of the carton with only the largest, most uniform items being visible upon opening one end of the box.

Other and further important objects of this invention will be apparent from the disclosures in the specification and the accompanying drawings.

On the drawings:

Figure 1 is an exploded, perspective view illustrating in elevation the nesting halves of a carton of the present invention prior to assembly.

Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmentary crosssectional view taken substantially along the line II-Il' of Fig. 5;

Figure 3 is an enlarged fragmentary crosssectional view taken substantially along the line III-III of Fig. 5;

Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view of a carton of theY present invention illustrating the method of assembling the telescoping halves of the carton, with the contents shown in elevation; and

Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view similar to Fig. 4 and illustrating the telescoping halves of the carton in completely assembled relation forming the completed carton.

As shown on the drawings:

The reference numeral I 0 refers generally to the complete, assembled carton of the present 3 invention. The carton I0 comprises a pair of nesting halves II and I2 formed of fiberboard or similar material. As best shown in Fig. 1, the outer half II and the inner half I2 are each selfsustainingy open topped receptacles defined by rectangular side walls I3 and I4 respectively. One open end of the outer receptacle I l is adapted to be closed by closure flaps I5 and I5 formed integrally with the side walls I3 and foldable inwardly to underlie the side walls I3. The end closure flaps I5 and I6 may be secured together by any conventional means, such as by the use of an adhesive or gummed paper tape. The closure flaps I5 and I6 thus form a double walled end closure when so secured, as shown in Fig. 4. The inner receptacle I2 is provided with closure flaps I'I and I8 which are identical with the flaps I5 and I6 of the half II and which may be secured in a like manner to constitute a double walled closure.

The outer carton half II is provided with slots I9 while the inner half' I2 is provided with corresponding slots 20 for registry with the slots I9 when the half II 'is telescoped over the inner half I2 as hereinafter described. These registering slots I 9 and 26 provide for the circulation of air through the carton and provide a means for Ventilating the contents of the box as is desirable when the box is employed for the packing andshipping of perishable articles such as certain foodstuffs.

The outer carton half II is also provided with elongated, horizontally extending apertures 2| fori/nedA in opposing side Walls I3 and adapted to be closed by a closure flap 22. aperture 23, of a size slightly larger than the opening 2I, is provided in the corresponding side walls I4 ofthe inner carton half I2. These holes 2I and 23 serve as hand holds for the lifting and moving of the carton during packing and shipment. As illustrated in Fig. 3, the closure flap 2I of the aperture 20 may be bent inwardly to underlie the upper edge of the aperture 23 to provide a gripping surface to facilitate the movement of the carton without the necessity of the hand bearing against the aperture edges.

As shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1 and as more clearly illustrated in Figs. 3-5, inclusive, each of the side walls I3 is provided lwith an inwardly deectable flap 24 formed integrally with the side Wall along that edge opposite the closure flap I5 or.` I6. These fiaps 24, when bent inwardly as shown, lie against the interior surfaces of the Walls I3 and serve to strengthen and rigidify the open end of the outer telescoping half I I and the entire carton I0 when the halves are assembled as shown in Fig. 5.

The assembly of the box is accomplished illustrated progressively in the Figs. 1, 4 and 5 in that order. The carton I0 is shipped to the packer, comprises separate cut and stamped blanks which may be folded into rectangular shape as shown in Fig. 1. Following the formation of the rectangular telescoping receptacles I I and I2, the end closure fiaps I'I and I8 of the receptacle I2 are closed and secured to form the open structure having single thickness side walls I4 and a double thickness bottom wall formed by the closure flaps I'I and I8. The structure II, which also is an open receptacle having single thickness side walls I3 and a double thick-- ness end walls formed by aps I5 and I6, is positioned over the bottom half I2 with the inwardly folded vflaps 24 engaging the side Walls I3 adjacent the open end ofthe lower half I2.

A corresponding 3 fil The top half II is now pushed downwardly or telescoped over the inner half I2 with the inner surfaces of the side walls I3 lying against the outer surfaces of the side walls I4 in tight fitting engagement. It is to be noted as illustrated in Fig. 4 that the folded iiaps 24 o-f the side wall I3 actually deform the side walls I4 of the lower half I2 so that a tight fit is insured during the telescoping of the halves and in the assembled carton as illustrated in Fig. 5. It is not necessary to close and secure the end wall flaps I5 and I6 of the outer half II prior to the assembling operatio-n, although these flaps may be closed and secured since any air which might be compressed between the telescoped halves would be able' to escape through the registering hand holds 2| and 22 and the registering apertures I9 and 20.

The assembled carton as illustrated in Fig. 5 comprises a closed container having double thickness side and end walls and having a third reinforcing thickness provided by the flaps 24 about the upper edge of the completed and assembled carton. Circulation of air is provided by means of the registering holes I9 and 2U and the carton may be readily lifted or otherwise moved by means of the registering hand holds 2I and 23 and the hand hold fiap 22.

To pack the material in the carton topresent an attractive display, the disassembled receptacles as illustrated in Fig. 1 are utilized. A layer of selectedfffruit comprising the largest and most uniform specimens available is inserted in the receptacle I2 of the carto-n, the layer lying on the bottom of the receptacle I2 provided by the closure flaps I'I and I8. Following the formation of this layer of selected material, the remainder of the material to be contained Within the carton is dumped promiscuously in helterskelter fashion yinto the bottom half of the carton to ll the same. Following the filling operation. the outer receptacle I I of the carton is telescoped over the inner receptacle I2 as hereinbefore described and the filled carton is inverted so that the flaps 24 providing the reinforcing thickness comprises the upper edge of the carton and so that the hand holds 2| and 23 are adjacent the upper edge of the carton. It may thus be seen that on opening the closure flaps I'I and I8, which now constitute the upper closure of the carton, only the layer of selected material is visible to the buyer.

Another advantage of the carton of the present invention resides in the fact that all of the material in the carton may be inspected by opening the closure flaps I5 and I6 upon reinversion of the box. In this manner the material may be inspected by the wholesaler or other inspector without the necessity of disturbing the display face of material presented by the layer adjacent the closure flaps II and I8.

It will, of course, be understood that various details of construction may be varied through a wide range without departing from the principles of this invention and it is, therefore, not the purpose to limit the patent granted hereon otherwise than necessitated by the scope of the appended claim.

I claim as my invention:

A carton comprising separable telescoping inner and outer receptacles of substantially the same depth each open at one end and each having integral flaps providing a closure for the other end, said outer receptacle having fiaps at its open end inwardly folding to lie along inner faces thereof for reinforcing said open end and said outeijieccptacic having in opposite side walls spaced i n said open end elongated hand hole slots a` associated denectable closures therefor. saidfgnelosures being hinged along a lilleA adjacent the n'e'emsof said mp; when folded l! MON/Said. Sidvinne'r receptacle having similar imm hole slots in opposite side walls similarly spaced from igsfelose'd end.l whereupon when said receptacles teieseopially assembled by fitting the open'vend of 'said inner receptacle into the open endfi said outer receptacle until vthe respective open ends 'abut the closures for the other ends. siid inwardly mined naps :fictionall! enlae th Ouier side wills f said inner reeeptaele to retain said receptacles in assembled iclationship sind said hand hole slots are in regissry with saidslot closures on the outer receptacle deiiectable to underlie tlc edges o! said reinforcing the4 lis 'f the hand hole slots in'said inner-receptacle to provide a reinforced surge:s im' nngers inserted through :saisiy 'gisterins o l am! P. PRPB.

ammcnscml'n The following references are of record in the iile oi this patent: 

